Lee Carsley and the ‘bizarre psychodrama’ robbing England of Pep Guardiola

Lee Carsley’s mixed messaging might be robbing England of Pep Guardiola, says a media that is losing its mind…

Carsballs
‘Lee Carsley’s inability to give a straight answer about his England future is now farcical. It feels like he’s nearing the end game, writes IAN LADYMAN after 3-1 win over Finland’ – MailOnline.

We continue to love the the MailOnline commitment to CAPITALS being such that sometimes they just shout the author’s name.

But first, does it ‘feel like he’s nearing the end game’ because, well, he is nearing the end game? He literally has two more games in charge of England unless – and this really cannot be ruled out – the FA decide that actually, he’s the perfect candidate for the job. And look at that, he’s right there in charge of the England Under-21s. How serendipitous.

Ladyman (sorry, LADYMAN) labours the theme through a whole column that there is confusion about Carsley’s mixed messaging around the England job, but does somehow miss the point that, well, it shouldn’t really matter. The issue really should not be whether he wants the job, but whether the FA wants him.

If the FA big-wigs are flailing about wondering where they stand in this relationship, then something has gone seriously awry.

He could choose to end the discussion. He could choose to answer straight questions with straight answers. Equally, he could declare that he was not prepared to talk about the matter at all until the end of his six-game interim stint in a month’s time.

But no. Instead we now seem stuck in the middle of a game of claim and counter claim. Quote and counter quote. The more Carsley says on the matter, the more murky the picture gets.

Or, and this seems plausible, he can’t really throw his hat enthusiastically into the ring on the back of a chastening defeat to Greece. And yet ruling himself out would be ludicrous when the craven FA really could just appoint him anyway.

Now it feels very much as though England are in some kind of holding pattern. A pause button has been pressed on the back of Carsley’s hesitancy. And now we are left to return to the desperately tricky question of: If not Lee then who?

No, a pause button has been pressed on the back of England being complete bobbins against Greece. If Carsley is not appointed England manager, it surely won’t be because the FA just couldn’t get a read on his mood.

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Bizarre psychodrama
There’s been a collective madness descend upon the England pack with Oliver Brown’s Telegraph piece headlined ‘If Lee Carsley does not want the England job then the FA must act now’.

This all feels a bit arse about face; the FA really should be in charge of this scenario.

Of course, Brown has never forgiven Carsley for the heinous crime of not singing the national anthem (it was ‘a powder keg ready to explode’, remember) and mentions that farrago in the second paragraph of another extraordinary piece which gives far too much weight to whether Carsley wants a job that he should never actually be offered.

Frankly, it would have been useful if Carsley had spelt out his reservations at the outset. If you are more emotionally wedded to the under-21s than the seniors, why not say so?

Because at that point he hadn’t managed the seniors? You think he should have taken the England caretaker job and immediately said ‘this is a bit sh*t and I can’t wait to get back to the kids’? Behave.

Supportive noises from the players cemented an impression that if Carsley succeeded, the position was his. And yet two-thirds of the way into this joyless interregnum, that prospect has all but evaporated.

It wasn’t ‘joyless’ when they won two games 2-0 in September, fella. And if the prospect of Carsley getting the job has ‘all but evaporated’, why does it matter even a jot if he wants the job or not? Why waste all these words on his ‘self-sabotage’ and ‘elliptical language’?

Precious time is being sacrificed through a state of limbo. The European qualifying groups for the 2026 World Cup are drawn in December, and England still appear none the wiser as to who will lead them into the campaign.

The draw is made in December but the games do not begin until March, Oliver. Luis de la Fuente was appointed as Spain coach in December 2022 and won the Euros in July 2024. There is time. ‘Precious time’, even.

With Carsley talking himself out of consideration, next month’s Nations League games against Greece and Republic of Ireland already feel like exercises in treading water, overseen by a man who cannot articulate with any conviction whether he wants to be there.

Again, if Carsley is out of consideration, it is surely because England were rotten against Greece and barely better against Finland.

The situation is not one that the FA can abide. Each week that they commit to Carsley is one that they lose in trying to persuade an A-lister such as Thomas Tuchel – or, tantalisingly, Pep Guardiola – to accept the challenge instead.

Sorry but what a right load of bollocks. If Guardiola is even vaguely tempted by the England job, is there any scenario in which him and the FA fail to come to an agreement because Carsley remains the caretaker for the six games for which he was appointed the caretaker?

There was logic in the original calculation that Carsley’s appointment could work. After all, Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni and Spain’s Luis de la Fuente have both plotted seamless paths from age-grade coaching to tournament glory. But for a left-field choice to win over the doubters, the messaging and the communication need to be consistent.

And the football, Oliver. You do seem to have forgotten football in this bizarre rant clearly based on the fact that a grown man chose not to sing a song.

But if you thought this was all rather bombastic, Brown has saved the best until last. Remember, we are literally 20 months away from a World Cup which involves almost all the teams in the world…

The FA can ill afford to kick their heels while Carsley continues his soul searching about whether he even belongs at this level. If their incumbent cannot summon the requisite self belief for the task, then they must urgently seek out somebody who can. Quite simply, the stakes are too high for them to spend a second longer on this bizarre psychodrama.

Quite aside from the fact that ‘psychodrama’ does not mean what Brown believes it means (he probably should have looked it up), there does appear to have been a basic misunderstanding of the concept of a caretaker manager role.

You don’t put a caretaker manager in place for six games and leave yourself needing a second caretaker four games in because he doesn’t know if he wants a job that has not actually been offered. Unless you’re a loon.

Just wait until Oliver Brown realises that Pep Guardiola won’t sing the English national anthem either…

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